Your Ninja built and coded real LEGO robots this week — there's a lot to celebrate!
The SPIKE Essential kits stay at the dojo. Your Ninja walked you through their favorite robots at our Friday Camp Celebration & Gallery Walk — keep that conversation going at home and ask them to retell their proudest moment of the week.
What We Covered This Week
Throughout the camp, Ninjas explored real robotics at a JR pace — using LEGO SPIKE Essential kits (the JR-age cousin of the SPIKE Prime kits used in our older-kid camp) and the icon-based LEGO SPIKE App. Click any topic to expand.
SPIKE Essential Basics, Motors & Gyro Sensor
Met "Ninja Says!" — a Simon Says warm-up that introduced the idea of following coded instructions
Toured what makes something a robot — inputs in, outputs out (Roomba, Siri, GPS, drones)
Learned pair programming at a JR pace — Driver (types the code) and Navigator (checks it), rotating roles all week
Connected a motor and tinkered with speed, direction, and stop blocks
Met the Gyro Sensor — "the robot's inner ear" — and coded a Tilt and Glow Adventure with different light patterns for each tilt direction
Sound, Loops & the Color Sensor
Built a Classic Carousel from the LEGO Amazing Amusement Park theme — coded it to spin with sound effects
Learned loops — repeat a pattern of blocks again and again instead of writing the code over and over
Met the Color Sensor — "the robot's magic eyes" — and built a Color Spin Carousel that did four different actions when shown four different colors
Connected the lesson to real life — "just like traffic lights tell us stop and go, the color sensor takes in information and decides what to do"
Events: Arctic Ride & High-Tech Playground
Learned what an event is — an action that triggers code to run
Built and coded an Arctic Ride motorized project
Built a High-Tech Playground — combined motors, sensors, sound, and lights in one project
Reflected on what made each build work and what to try differently next time
Avoid the Edge & Monster Trash Machine
Built an Avoid the Edge robot — used the Color Sensor to detect a colored edge and turn before falling off
Built a Monster Trash Machine — a sorting robot that responds to inputs and triggers outputs
Practiced debugging together as a team when the robot didn't do what they expected
Final Project & Camp Celebration
Picked a Final Project — their own design or a favorite build from the week
Tinkered with motors, sensors, sound, lights, and loops to make it their own
Presented their robot at the Friday Camp Celebration & Gallery Walk — parents walked through every Ninja's project and heard the story behind it
Closed out the week with team reflections and shout-outs
What's Next?
Want your ninja to keep building? Pick what's next:
JR Program → — year-round JR adventure for ages 5–7, coding, robotics, and creative tech taught at a JR pace
JR Engineering — hands-on STEM with Snap Circuits, ScratchJR, Makey Makey, and craft supplies
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